Dividing new horses in large field

[AnnieDuffy]

Hi, was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on dividing a large field with two sets of horses?
The horses know each other but haven't lived together. There's a mixture of geldings and mares. My two are geldings; the other group are two mares and two geldings, one of which is a two year old gelding. There is one field shelter and one area of water. Naturally, I'd love them all to get on but more importantly for them to be safe and well and also for everyone to have a fair proportion of the facilities! I have bought 5ft electric fence posts and wire. My hope, is at one stage they'll all be able to join in together. I'm hoping I can garner advice from other members how they have faired in similar circumstances. Thanks! Annie

 

[ycbm]

With that number of horses and one field shelter then, unless it's very big, I think I would block it off unless you need to use it as a stable one day. The danger is that it would be argued about who was to be in there.

To introduce them I would fence it into two sections and provide water to the half with none and when everyone seems settled with the new company, take the fence away.

When you say wire, what do you mean? I wouldn't personal fence a loose electric fence with wire, I only use wire on permanent posts set back against a boundary. I don't like the lack or visibility of what wire does when it gets loose. In that situation I would use tape.
.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I would make the intial electric fence a double one with enough space between the 2 that horses can't kick each other thorugh the fence. When they seem settled like that you can take one layer of fencing away and monitor before attempting to remove the other layer.
As above depending on how the field is set up,it seems unlikely that the 2 groups can have access to all the current facilities, so that must be factopred in.

 

[paddy555]

I would make the intial electric fence a double one with enough space between the 2 that horses can't kick each other thorugh the fence. When they seem settled like that you can take one layer of fencing away and monitor before attempting to remove the other layer.
As above depending on how the field is set up,it seems unlikely that the 2 groups can have access to all the current facilities, so that must be factopred in.

when I introduced my new stallion to my others I double fenced as above. With tape so it was very visible. I put the 2 fences around 8ft apart. Once I was more confident I slowly reduced the gap until they were down to a single tape.
I would also block off the shelter if there are several horses with access before someone gets trapped.